Friday, October 31, 2014

Holy from Womb to Tomb?

I am pleased to once again see someone with Charedi
credentials, Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier, underscore an idea I have expressed here
several times. That Gedolim are human, subject to human error - and sometimes do
err. Even the greatest Gedolim of the past – were human. To say or imply otherwise
is to lie.

While that may seem obvious to most of us, it is not the way
Gedolim of the past are depicted in the Charedi world. As I have mentioned in
the past, ArtScroll biographies are notorious in this regard. To quote Rav
Nosson Kamenetsky, they are portrayed as being born Kodesh MiBeten and stay
that way. Holy from womb to tomb.

I have called this lying to the public. It is a lie of omission
which in my view is worse than a lie of commission. When a lie is
published, it can be refuted by facts. But a lie of omission is not
something that can be refuted. It is just an implication by way of effusive
praise of an individual and lack of anything critical.He then appears to have never done anything wrong. Never tested. His every action in life was one of perfection. Which of
course means they are being portrayed as pure angels of God and not human at
all.

Rabbi Nosson Scherman, founder and publisher of Mesorah Publications
(ArtScroll) was asked about this deficiency in his ArtScroll biography series.
He answered that his bios are not meant to tell the truth of history at all. It
there is a negative story about a past Gadol he is not going to mention it. His
bios are meant to inspire. So he will never publish anything negative that will
detract from their greatness.

This kind of thinking was also behind the ban on Rav Nosson
Kamenetsky’s book ‘Making of a Gadol’. He told inspiring stories about the legitimate
Gedolei HaDor of the past that included challenges they had. And which they
overcame. It was banned precisely for that reason by Rav Elyashiv (under questionable circumstances).

What Rabbi Kamentesky unsderstands and Rabbi Scherman refuses
to recognize is that overcoming challenges is what inspires people. Truth
inspires people. Not fairly tales about perfect human beings.

While I understand the desire to never say a negative thing
about a past Gadol in deference to his greatness, the Torah itself does not
agree with this approach. That is where Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier comes in.

His Parsha article (Lech Lecha) in the Jewish Press makes that abundantly
clear. It is not some esoteric reading
of the Parsha. It is a widely understood reading about the tests suffered by
Avrohom Avinu, the ultimate one being the sacrifice his son Yitzchak (in next
week’s Parsha). Avrohom passed all of those
tests as we know. The point being that he was not an angel that could do no
wrong. He was a human being that could do wrong and tested accordingly.

Rabbi Shafier correctly points out that Avrohom Avinu was
the prototypical human Gadol by which we should see other Gedolim of the past
and present. Here is what he says:

It seems that the gedolim written about in the popular
books today are presented as malachim – as if they never failed, never
suffered any setbacks, and never went through nisayonos. Never questioned
themselves. Never felt lost or confused.

The reality is quite different. Every gadol has
suffered. Every great person goes through tests and tribulations. Each of the Avos and
Imahos had periods of darkness and difficulties and on some level they all
failed. The true distinction between people who become world class gedolim and
those who don’t is how much they were willing to pay the price, how committed
they are to serving Hashem, how many times they were willing to get knocked
down and get back up again.

If you find a gadol story that doesn’t include
dark times, you are reading pure fiction. In the world Hashem created, fighting
spiritual fights is integral to growth, and fighting means that sometimes you
win and sometimes you lose. It seems that in an attempt to portray gedolim as
great, we have made them non-human – angels just barely wearing human form.

While this may stem from a noble motivation, it is false,
and it brings with it a real danger. If a gadol is barely human, I can’t
learn from him. After all, I am very human. I have ups and downs,
moments of great inspiration and times of doubt and questions. I fall down and
need to pick myself back up. If gedolim are perfect angels, what
connection do they have to me? How can I learn from them?

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.